ASHBURN, Va. -- They do nothing here on empty stomachs and, while a good nosh might not necessarily translate into a productive NFL Draft, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and personnel director Vinny Cerrato don't leave anything to chance and don't mind linking gustatory satisfaction and football greatness.

So on Friday evening after the "hay was in the barn" -- scoutese for meaning that you are apt to suffer brain lock if you scrutinize one more videotape or try to extrapolate future productivity from a recent 40-yard dash time -- the team's personnel and coaching staffs huddled for dinner at a well-known Georgetown steak house.

And then Saturday morning, to assure that their war room brain trust was not affected by anything remotely resembling starvation, the Redskins retained a local caterer to parcel out made-to-order omelets, hash browns and French toast to their front office staff (cost: $55 per person) for an hour before the draft commenced.

Their appetites sated and their bellies filled, Snyder and Cerrato and coach Norv Turner could go about the business of satisfying the Redskins' most glaring needs without worrying about growling stomachs. The team that eats together is expected to win together and about the only thing for which Washington hungers is another Vince Lombardi trophy for the lobby of the team complex.

Trust me, it took Cerrato a lot longer to finish off his salmon on Friday night ("Hey, a Catholic kid can't eat steak on Friday in Lent," he noted), than it did to select Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington and Alabama offensive tackle Chris Samuels, the equivalent of a couple cuts of filet mignon, with the second and third overall choices.

Even hours before the draft, Cerrato was prepared to pull the trigger and make official one of the worst kept secrets in recent league history.

Here's how orchestrated the Redskins' two choices were: The team even had an agreement with ESPN about how long it would take before turning in the cards anointing Arrington as the second pick (10 minutes) and Samuels as the third (13 minutes). Seems that the folks at Disney have to reap the most from their investment as the NFL's draft shills. But if you ever gripe about how long the first round takes, file your complaints with the guys wearing the mouse ears.

The only better choreographer involved with the draft might have been Arrington, who assured he would not be drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the first pick by ordering his agents to not return phone calls from club officials. Agents Carl Poston and Kevin Poston denied that was the case, but Arrington winked when asked about his plan for guaranteeing that his future would be with the Redskins and one Browns official confirmed the team "had trouble locating" Arrington's mouthpieces the past few days.

And so long before crunch time, everything was neatly in place for the Redskins' draft coup.

"Really, I'm more anxious than I am nervous," said Cerrato, the former San Francisco personnel man who nonetheless was serving as ultimate decision maker in his first draft. "Everyone knows who we're taking, so let's just get it over with, you know? This is kind of like reading the book even after someone's already told you who fired the fatal bullet."

Given recent events, it might be politically incorrect to suggest the Redskins perpetrated a first-degree murder on the rest of the league. But no other team, not even the New York Jets with their unprecedented four choices in the first round, came out of the opening stanza with two players who figure to make such an immediate impact on a team that already was pretty darned good.

Dubbed "a pair of true Redskins in their makeup" by Snyder, the first-round picks immediately demonstrated they are an optimum fit for this franchise, arriving here munching on cookies after the short flight from Manhattan on the owner's private jet and then a helicopter junket over from nearby Dulles International Airport.

Just as immediately, the two were inserted into the NFC East champion's starting lineup, where it is anticipated that Samuels will spend the next decade protecting the blindside of the Washington quarterbacks and Arrington chasing down opposition passers.

"We wanted to put ourselves in the driver's seat by getting two of the top three picks, and we feel that making the move can put us into the Super Bowl this year," said Snyder, more relieved than raucous in his first draft experience. "We set the expectations here and our goal will be the same every season. We have an interest in any great player and today we got two more of them."

The trade with San Francisco two months ago at the predraft combine workouts, a deal in which Washington ensured it would be the first team since Indianapolis in 1992 to land two of the three top choices, set the stage for what transpired here on Saturday afternoon. Thirty miles from here, in downtown Washington, D.C., police battled the angry mobs protesting meetings of the World Trade Organization. But in this bucolic corner of the Redskins universe, things were peaceful and borderline mundane.

Cerrato spent two hours very early Saturday morning squeezing in a workout instead of having to man the telephone and get the Redskins into a more advantageous position. So convinced was the rest of the league that Washington already had filled out the draft cards that would be turned in to the league by Al Cerrato, the personnel director's uncle, and minority stockholder Fred Drasner less than an hour into the proceedings that no one even called to inquire if the Redskins wanted to make a first-round deal.

The last such call that Cerrato fielded came on Monday, when Pittsburgh personnel man Kevin Colbert phoned to see if the Redskins might like to trade down to the No. 8 spot overall, and permit the Steelers to move up and select Samuels to bolster a shaky offensive line. Colbert could have saved his time and his dime, the call lasting two minutes tops.

On Thursday afternoon, Snyder called Cleveland president Carmen Policy to kiddingly suggest the Redskins were ready to move up if the Browns would take the No. 3 overall choice. Much has been made in print and broadcast reports of what was a light-hearted chat and nothing more.

After the choices were made, Cerrato was asked about the lack of inquiries and noted "maybe our phones don't work." Shot back Turner: "Or maybe somebody turned them off."

If anything, there was a palpable sense of anticlimax to the Washington choices. Realizing early on that Cleveland was only blowing smoke about the possibility of grabbing Arrington instead of defensive end teammate Courtney Brown, and more willing to call the Browns' bluff than jump at the bait they were pitching about a swap up to the first overall slot, the Redskins had things nicely in place. Because they had done their homework well, there was little suspense surrounding their choices and the team's relatively sterile war room reflected that calm.

Three hours before the draft opened, the war room was quiet and the Skins' draft board was not yet picked over. The order in which Cerrato and his staff rated the premier prospects: Arrington, Samuels, Brown, Florida State defensive tackle Corey Simon, New Mexico linebacker Brian Urlacher, wide receiver Peter Warrick of Florida State and Virginia tailback Thomas Jones. A few coaches and scouts confirmed for SportsLine.com that the board was legitimate and true to the grades attached to the players, and not weighted toward the club's preferences.

Said Cerrato, who realized months ago this was a draft about quantity and set out to collect two of the four quality prospects: "There's nothing wrong with being boring. Believe me, I would take this kind of boring every draft, if I could get it."

Indeed, a fly on the wall of the Washington war room, perhaps the most inaptly titled four walls in the entire league, might have perished from lack of activity. It was more like a "peace room," as placid as the surroundings might have been at, say, the Treaty of Ghent. When the hand has played out even before the cards are dealt, there is neither reason nor excuse for dissent. Forget the discouraging words or debates characteristic of draft rooms. The only civil disobedience came when an assistant coach spilled some coffee.

When the Browns did what every NFL fan knew they would, and took Courtney Brown after having reached a contract accord with him late Friday night, there was a collective sigh of relief and not much more.

Very quietly, Snyder whispered, "All right!" But the well-rehearsed high-five he and Cerrato had discussed as early as a month ago for their planned response to getting exactly what they wanted, never materialized. From outside the war room there was polite applause from team functionaries who seemed more thrilled, truth be told, at the prospect of being paid time-and-a-half for working on a Saturday.

Perhaps the best description of the attitude in the Washington was room was smug. Noted Turner: "It's really hard to please an entire (war) room, but we did it." Snyder claimed his feeling was "a sense of excitement and relief," but he appeared much more of the latter.

Actually the two players looked more excited than anyone else, although both allowed they could have done without the helicopter ride on a windy day. They have reason for feeling pretty good.

Chris Samuels (left) and LaVar Arrington show off their new colors.(AP)

Perhaps the best tackle prospect to come into the league over the last 10 years, with the exception of Jacksonville star Tony Boselli, the soft-spoken Samuels agreed he has come a long way from the day five years ago when he nearly quit the Alabama team and returned home to Mobile, Ala. The more loquacious Arrington, who will be used in a variety of ways by first-year defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes, suggested he had merely fulfilled his destiny.

Both should provide the Redskins a chance to fulfill the lofty expectations Snyder and the rest of his front office have set here. This marks the second draft in a row that Washington selected two immediate starters, first-round cornerback Champ Bailey and second-round offensive tackle Jon Jansen emerging in 1999 as young stars.

As proficient as he is at protecting the passer, Samuels, who has sacrificed only one sack over the last two seasons, will be the slower to develop. He will go up against future Hall of Fame pass rusher Bruce Smith the first day of training camp, Turner said, and will be thrown right into the fire and expected to perform. But tackles, particularly on the left side, take time to develop.

On the limousine ride from Madison Square Garden, the site of the draft, to the airport in New York, Samuels fired up a cigar with some friends to celebrate his newfound celebrity. Before the smoke had even a half-inch of ash on it, Samuels was nauseated and asked the chauffeur to pull over. Noted for his recovery as a pass blocker, he quickly bounced back.

"My expectation is to be good from the get-go, but I know this is another level," Samuels said. "I'm going to have to be better in everything I do. I know it's a big step."

On the other hand, the flamboyant Arrington, who has a longtime friendship with Washington linebackers coach and fellow Pittsburgh-area native Foge Fazio, should be an extraordinary playmaker from his first day on the field. Washington coaches already have backed off their stance that Arrington will play the strongside spot and decided he will be used much as he was at Penn State, as a rover who gets time at all three linebacker positions.

Fazio and Turner debunked the notion Arrington is an undisciplined defender who can't play in a structured system and freelances way too much. "The 'freelance' thing in our mind was kind of a positive," Turner said.

On tape, the Redskins saw Arrington blitz the quarterback and collect sacks, cover the receiver in the slot man-to-man and run up the seam with him, and stuff the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage. He'll get the opportunity, Fazio said, to do all those things. Turner conceded that a player of such diverse and disparate abilities forces a coaching staff to be creative. Arrington, who as a kid attended one of Fazio's football camps when the latter was the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh, said he is "counting big-time" on his old mentor to get him around the ball as often as possible.

He needn't worry very much about that.

Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff, making his first-ever appearance at a draft, was at the Redskins' complex Saturday afternoon specifically to meet Arrington.

"I've watched him on tape and he makes plays all over the field," Huff said. "This guys is an incredible player. They can say what they want about the modern player, but LaVar could have been a star in any era."

In the Redskins' scouting assessment forms on Arrington, obtained by SportsLine.com, Fazio noted: "Outstanding quickness and speed. Explosive. Great size. A big hitter and aggressive. Quick off the ball and a great motor. One of the most competitive linebackers to come out in a long time." And then the final notation, underlined twice: "Get him!"

The only negative listed by Fazio was that Arrington "looked a little stiff in the hips." But the Skins' colorful assistant conceded he threw that in only as nit-picking and because he felt he had to say something that left a little doubt Arrington wasn't ready for immediate deification. That said, Fazio graded Arrington as a "9," the highest rating possible and the first "9" Fazio ever awarded in his 13 NFL seasons.

"At the end of the day," Fazio said, "the kid is strictly a 'can't miss' guy."

At the end of the day, of course, the Redskins couldn't miss another opportunity to celebrate their draft bounty by doing what they do best. On a downstairs basketball court, now a makeshift cafeteria, the caterer was serving dinner. The entrée was flank steak and Cerrato and Snyder were chowing down as if their day had been much hairier than it really turned out.

"Good food and good football players," Cerrato said. "Not a bad day, huh?"